


Cutting the Deck: Character Analysis of Arc V Characters

by seasaltmemories



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Archived From Tumblr, Archived from Seasaltmemories Blog, Gen, Meta Essay, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2019-09-07 14:14:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16855507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seasaltmemories/pseuds/seasaltmemories
Summary: A collection of essays examining and studying various members of Arc V





	1. Serena and Anger

So Serena is a weird favorite character for me in that, on my initial viewing of Arc V, she didn’t really stand out to me much. I didn’t dislike her, but nothing about her had resonated with me yet. Key word though because as I thought about her as a character and rewatched a few episodes I fell head over heels in love.

I couldn’t grasp the reason why. I didn’t feel as if I had missed anything about her character the first time. Still one trait of hers was striking: her anger. It’s been a facet ever since I’ve always enjoyed, but with Arc V’s conclusion and a few weeks to digest everything, now I feel I can talk about it in fully.

On the surface, her anger is not very unique. Both Yuzu and Rin have been shown to have their tempers and the entire archetype the tsundere exists; however, what stands out to me the most in contrast to the previous examples is that Serena’s anger is never played comically. Like there are a few small moments such as when the Fuuma brothers take her and Yuzu away from the Obelisk Force, her frustration about being in solitary confinement, or the slapstick around her and Yugo, but 99% of the time, it’s played completely straight. And in turn the narrative takes her just as seriously. When she is fully introduced, she is shown to have taken down a former formidable opponent with ease and stands to be a threat. It could have been just as easy to write Barrett out, have Reiji duel Serena, reveal backstory then, have him defeat her, and then have her escape in a way that alerts Academia. However it’s noticeable that not only does Reiji first try to convince her to join his side, but that she turns him down.

And the thing about it is Serena isn’t simply bothered by a lot of things or something, she is almost constantly angry. It’s not always raw and explosive, but it always simmers in the background. She burns with a desire to prove herself, to see the world, to break out of the cage she’s lived in her entire life. And as mentioned above, the narrative treats this as a legitimate grievance. While we the audience don’t want her to card all the characters we’ve grown to love, we’re not supposed to dislike her for desiring freedom and independence.

Another thing I like about her serious anger is that it doesn’t keep her from being able to turn into a good guy. Despite a ruthlessness that never really goes away, she gets to have her own morality and switch sides the minute those she trust breaks it. Hearing Shun’s story has a clear effect on her, but it doesn’t magically turn her into a character like Yuzu, a girl whose kindness and compassion comes naturally. She still doesn’t really understand social situations or is ok with everything now. Still her anger does not make her evil, even though she had acted morally gray.

The Synchro arc greatly diminishes her POV but I still enjoy the moments we get with it. For probably the only major moment in Arc V, we get to see her happy during her duel with Yugo. And while this is partly due to the fact Yugo is a wildcard who doesn’t know half the plot himself, the duel never suggest her finding happiness means she isn’t allowed to be angry. In a way she is able to take back the fun and enjoyment of dueling that was stolen from her as a child soldier.

Only to have much of it taken away with the nerve gas. This is probably one of my most disliked elements of Arc V as it was a blatant attempt to make it easier for her to be captured again. Still there were several good moments that was able to come out of it. She puts Reira and Tsukikage ahead of herself, telling them to leave her behind, and her anger burns just as brightly. She fights the nerve gas with all she has, wanting to do anything to protect Reira as he tries to protect her. She faces Barrett a different person and turns down all her previous hopes and dreams with a scowl.

The most tragic thing is despite her proclaiming, she never will return to the “hell” that is Academia, she is forced to anyways.

And in Season 3, we never really get to see that anger again. For half of it she’s MIA or under mind control, and the other half she mainly functions as a bracelet girl. She does get to speak her mind, but it’s not as the independent character she was established to be. Her last words I believe are as the Arc V reactor drains her life force away.

I hope that some of her anger is sated by the ending of Arc V, that through Yuzu she no longer has to be confined by Academia and gets to enjoy the fun and freedom previously denied to her. But to claim her arc was wrapped up by such an ending would be completely false.

Though to be fair, my dream ending was her taking the pirate ship from 115 and sailing off onto a brand new adventure. Arc V’s greatest strength and it’s biggest weakness are both linked to it’s incredible focus on Yuya and his story. Still I stand by the opinion that Serena still had better writing than a considerable portion of the cast and a more compelling arc than ones that were even developed fully.

Serena’s a character that affected me much deeper and on a more personal level than I ever expected. I never realized it until her how much I needed a female character allowed the same ugly anger many male characters express. I’m a people pleaser and tend to suppress my personal anger for the sake of harmony, but something as unexpected as a 14 year old girl from a card game anime can remind me that, ‘no, your anger doesn’t make you a bad person.’ And I think that is important for the young girls who have watched Arc V to see as well, especially in Japan where gender roles are so strict, and those traits are usually only for comical effect.


	2. Dennis' Connection to Zarc

So this may or may not be a little series I do. While I have no hard plans, I’d enjoy going through the cast in whatever order I choose and talking about whatever aspect of the character I feel compelled to tackle at the moment in a very personal and subjective matter. As a result if this is well-received and/or I find myself interested in continuing this I might share my thoughts on other characters in the future.

Due to @skittymon’s encouragement on a previous post and the fact it’s been about a year or so since episode 114, I think I’ll dive into what really stood out about Dennis’ character to me.

While I love the non-counterpart cast of Arc V to bits, I feel like Dennis is the prime example for why I believe that Arc V wasn’t really about the counterparts themselves. Starting with the public reveal of his connection to Academia in season 2, every time he appeared I was left with this sense of “this changes things” His arc really builds on the themes and message of Arc V while giving a weight to different aspects of the plot.

Starting with episode 74-75 was really the first time I really thought deeply about Dennis as a character. That’s not to say his earlier appearances are bad (I love his duel against Gongenzaka) but it introduces a very human element to Academia: reluctance. He’s not like Yuri, the Obelisk Force, or Sora (from what we had seen so far) who deeply believe in Academia’s goals and enjoys fighting for the cause, but he’s not like Serena, someone who can turn his back on it so easily. It’s just his job, one that he continues on doing despite the regrets it leaves him with. Still this doesn’t excuse the harm he’s caused. Even though he prefers to entertain as opposed to battle, there’s no erasing the fact he started a war.

Drifting into the hypothetical a bit, but this is why the only ship that I personally wish was canon is Janushipping. Not even in a romantic context, just that they had explicitly known each other. In the flashback we’re shown, he is on enough good terms with Ruri that waving to her as they pass by is not unusual. Now this doesn’t signal a deep friendship or anything, but if there had been just a smidge more focus on it or at least an acknowledgment of it by Ruri, I feel it could have added a different type of pathos to the Heartland Invasion. Seeing your home burn to the ground is very traumatic and horrifying, but it is an alien concept to most ppl and hard to empathize with. Being able to add a human face to it through Dennis’ betrayal of Ruri adds a dimension (lol) that is much easier to relate to. It would also give a bit more weight to Ruri as a person by showing her outside the role of Shun’s sister and Yuto’s friend/crush, but I digress.

By the time 112-114 roll around, it’s pretty easy to ignore this past revelation as Dennis acts the part of heartless soldier pretty well. It’s only at the end of 114 do we see a continuation of this conflict. By now he’s decided that he doesn’t want to continue and support Academia, but at the same time he feels he doesn’t doesn’t deserve redemption. Yusho himself offers forgiveness to him with no strings attached, but the conflict between who he is and what he’s done drives him to card himself. It’s one of the most somber moments of the series and deserving so bc we just watched a young teen commit the equivalent of suicide. While by now we know he can return and we see this happen on-screen, there’s still the fact that Dennis thought the best fate for himself was to not exist.

Tying this in with other events, it really gives a weight again to redemption, something I think Arc V tried to do. Winning people over to Yuya’s ideology in one duel wasn’t really done until season 3, when the show presents him as his most developed. Before, the only person who switches so easily is Serena who unlike almost any other Academia soldier was not aware of the level of violence being done. Sora took nearly half of season 2 before he declared himself as defecting from Academia and initially he was very much against doing more than making sure his loved ones (Yuzu and Yuya) were safe. In season 3 the mass defecting of Academia forces can feel odd after such slow processes but in-between it all we’re smacked in the face with a character who feels redemption isn’t possible. It’s a harsh reminder that comes very unexpectedly and also goes to differentiate the three ‘redeemed’ members of the “Fusion quartet”

Next this also reminds the viewer that these are child soldiers. In a fantastical series such as Yugioh the horror of this is nowhere near the level of reality, but it’s still hurts. As many victims he’s hurt, Dennis is a victim himself, and it’s very hard to ignore that act when faced with these actions. On another note it almost mirrors Zarc’s fall before he even learn his existence. To declare either as blameless is to outright ignore the show, but outside circumstances are both a key factor. If left to their own devices, both would probably prefer to simply entertain ppl. Even if the damage of their actions outweighs any sympathy in your eyes, that doesn’t take away the tragic elements to their struggle.

Interestingly enough, exactly 30 episodes later is when we get a resolution to Dennis’ arc. To understand the impact of this, context is required. The fanon around Dennis’ character was largely composed of angst and hurt with the only sign of recovery being shown as happen years in post-canon I say this as someone who was writing fanfic like that bc the fact 144 is so optimistic hit everyone out of right field. Not only was it positive, but it felt right, better than any conclusion others had proposed. I remember discussing with a friend how the idea of him becoming a teacher and sort of finding his redemption in the next generation was something that had never occurred to her yet it was perfect.

Personally 144 is one of the reason I will never discount the “make Reira smile” arc as pointless. To me the duel between Yuya and Dennis shows the best of entertainment dueling in several subtle ways. At the beginning Dennis is falling into some old habits, painting himself as a villain for Yuya to defeat and make everything better with. Though his self-carding is never outright mentioned its memory is hard to ignore as he still views himself as unworthy of being “good.” Then Yuya flips the script and reaches out to him. The duel becomes less about vanquishing a foe and more about understanding someone else to build a bigger and brighter future than before. In a way this prepares the audience again for how Yuya will handle Zarc. The way Yuya overcomes Zarc’s shadow is by trying to understand him and instead of damning him showing how better alternatives exist.

So again when I see the statement that the counterparts were the star of the show, I have to disagree. Even if some of what I pointed out was more coincidence as opposed to intentional actions on the creator’s part, I feel you can’t argue that Dennis’ role in the story wasn’t meant to have importance to the overall narrative. And for the most part I think many agree. Despite supporting character I have only seen one person express dislike for him. Usually the coldest reaction I see is indifference or neutrality, and that is overshadowed by the love I see showered on him. His impact sticks in a way I think the character himself would be proud to see.


	3. Did A5 have the worst treatment of female characters to date?

This is a topic I have a lot of thoughts about (and even have planned to do meta on), bc while I am aware and plan to acknowledge several of its flaws, I still feel that A5 was actively trying to include female characters and treat them right

Like think of which groups that didn’t have female characters, very few parts of the story or factions were primarily male, most of the time there was at least one female character in the group, sometimes this bordered on pure tokenism, but the overall effect worked for me bc it piles up by the end. Like this is me naming off female characters at the top of my head: Yuzu, Ayu, Yoko, Himika, Masumi, Mieru, Serena, Rin, Ruri, Sayaka, The Tyler Sisters, Asuka, Ray. All these characters have multiple appearances and do great work to presenting a world where female duelists aren’t unusual, it seems like a small thing but in comparison to 5D’s (which I also love but the fact it is often regarded as having above average female rep and that I’ve re-watched the first few episodes makes it the easiest to compare) it really stands out. In the former by thirteen episodes we’ve met five female characters and you could argue all of them have been directly involved with the plot (Yoko and Ayu are debatable but that’s still 3/5). With 5D’s by episode thirteen we’ve seen Mikage and are just meeting Ruka (One of Yusei’s Satellite friends has a very feminine appearance, Rally, but the wiki told me that he was a guy) Part of this is dude to the fact the main focus early on is on the Yusei vs. Jack rivalry and Yusei goes to prison for a while, and I don’t mean to diminish the great stuff involved with Aki and all, but this is just such a common problem in Shounen in general, many just feel so male-centric, so that’s why I find it so important to emphasize the more gender-equal background.

As a result of this slight increase and Yuzu’s role as a deuteragonist, we end up almost always having a female storyline to follow in the process, we get to consistently see female characters who are treated like individuals with their own thoughts, feelings, and relationships, it’s a lot of good stuff that is sorely undervalued, not to mention the world is not saved by the protag, but a girl: twice. In fact out of the main group of female characters only one is a non-duelist (Himika) and even then her job isn’t simply to cheerleader or anything. It’s far from balanced and in future YGO I hope there’s a push for more female characters whose gender is irrelevant to the overall plot or making sure there’s at least one girl on screen, but I still think this progress is worthy of praise

Which brings us to the elephant in the room: the bracelet girls’ treatment. Before we talk about specifics, we need to acknowledge that part of it was due to the entire way the plot was structured. When the entire show is about collecting four people to bring back a grieving scientist’s child, it’s very hard to avoid the focus being on kidnapping/saving the targets. And Yugioh has had plenty of male characters in need of saving and rescuing from time to time. However the fact that they’re female in a male-heavy cast doesn’t do it any favors. Looking at that through this lens though, I am pretty ok with most of the broad strokes of the plot. It’s hard to get mad the number of times Yuzu switches hands when the villain is doing everything in his power to get her. And while I would love a bit more characterization with Ruri, with how the fact Rin and Ruri were already captured before the story started, there was not much you can do, and even then I’m pretty sure the how mind-control subplot was just to make sure we got to see Rin and Ruri duel (which would explain how sloppy it was) I think the biggest problem comes in with how Yuzu and Serena’s dueling status is treated

Like for the plot to function the way they have structured it, then Yuzu and Serena need to be captured, the fact they can defend themselves makes this difficult when added to all the other stuff going down so they just decide to take away their duel disks/ability to duel. From a writing standpoint it’s logical, but at the same time it robs them some of the agency in the plot. Like it’s almost hilarious how Yuzu more or less just loses her duel disk after her tag duel with Sora, there are so many points where she is simply unable to act due to not having it, and the show knows it since she operates the same plot-wise, I just think time constraints and perhaps card sales (I have no idea how Melodious were received so don’t take that as a fact) made it difficult for her to actively defend herself. Serena I discussed more in this meta, but the biggest short-coming with her arc is that after Season 3, she is reduced to a “bracelet girl” as opposed to her own individual.

It’s bc of that structure that the second half of season 3 is so male, the only girl we have impacting the plot is Ray, but even she is mainly doing that through Reira (whose gender situation is so ambiguous I find it best not to address) I think the bracelet girl situation wouldn’t have been received so badly if we had a female lancer who was a non-bracelet girl like Mieru and/or Masumi had come along or one of the guy lancers had instead been a girl, or we could have given Yuya a duel against Serena bc she was a lancer as well but I digress

TLDR: While A5 treated its female characters like characters and they got to impact the plot, due to the fact Leo’s entire goal was to kidnap the bracelet girls, they were forced to lose some agency


	4. Why Leo is the Most Relatable Character in Arc V

Leo is an interesting villain partly because he doesn’t seem interesting at all.

We knew he was the “known” big bad of the series, even before Zarc and Ray were clear concepts there was the feeling he wasn’t the “real” enemy. Academia had established itself as a credible opponent, but it was quite literally a machine that seemed to function on its own. Leo was the “face” of it, but only in the way say the namesake of a business or university is. They’re so thoroughly turned into a symbol, they as an individual don’t have any weight.

And the funny think about Leo, is that even before 126, he was humanized in way evil “emperor” type rarely aren’t. He was Reiji’s father and left him and Himika. As much as evil dads are overplayed in anime, that adds a weight there that rarely isn’t found. While the anime rarely dives past implications when it tackles the concept of a broken Akaba home, shots like the ones of Himika tearing up Leo’s office and Reiji staring in horror are powerful. Not to mention Reiji’s complicated feelings about him. Aside from the original flashback, Reiji’s connection to Leo feels more told than shown. People like Roger try and exploit the connection, yet there seems to be none. That is until Reiji sees Leo face to face, and oh that unemotional distance is so harder to maintain. From Leo trying to persuade Reiji to his side, to Reiji’s shifting to child-like pronouns as he feels himself made into a child again by Leo.

Even those these moments technically happened after 126, they’re all set up beforehand and in theory could have happened even if season 3 went differently. And those alone aren’t what make Leo stand out to me. It is the brilliant yet simple twist that Ray, the bracelet girl’s original form is not a powerful goddess or ancient being, but his daughter. It is basic as basic comes to use a dead family member to turn someone evil. Yet it ties together A5 in a way few other details do.

For one, it heightens that already tense family drama. Leo is not a man who didn’t love his family enough, but someone who loved it so much he chose one child over the other. Add in Reira’s weird placement as a child of Leo who never met him until now, and hot damn you got a genuine soap opera. But even if you aren’t invested in Keeping Up With the Akaba’s, it just makes Leo such a sad, yet misguided figure. He has all the ingredients for a proper tragic hero. Someone who at the top of his game, lost it all because of those very gifts. And even when the world was literally destroyed and was ready to repent for his sins, he ends up losing his daughter and entire world even more.

The simplicity is what makes it so effective. Within two episodes it is beyond easy to understand how Leo became the man he is today. Yet after following our protagonists for so long, we can’t agree with him in any manner. This new world may be only fourteen years old, but it is so full of life and people you were convinced for hundreds of episodes before to root for, it is crazy to switch to Leo’s side. He can’t before more than a blind fool by now.

Until we the audience must suffer what he does. Now it isn’t impossible to have liked the show until now but not been a huge fan of Yuzu, but it is impossible to act as if the show didn’t want you to love her. She is so important to countless characters, from minor ones like Shuzo to our own protagonist, Yuya. Even if you don’t like her, it is hard to ignore her importance to Sora, Yugo, Serena, and so many more. And yet right after the climatic battle, we have to watch an ideal, peaceful world where she doesn’t exist. And in that moment I couldn’t relate to Leo any more.

Because on paper everything is perfect and fine, yet we know something is missing, even if the characters can’t pinpoint what it is. Hell some thought the dissonance was so great it had to be a dream world of sorts. It didn’t matter if the world could function without her, bc we and the characters cared about Yuzu, and our world wasn’t the same anymore.

And what is fascinating is that after this Leo doesn’t appear as a vindictive figure insisting he was right. He doesn’t even seek out the protagonists, just retires back to his quarters to reflect on the mess and try to fix what he can. When Shun comes to him blazing with anger and blame, Leo doesn’t even have any pride to shallow. There was no excuse to destroy a world that was fully real to everyone else, and he only ended up repeating his mistakes over again. He can save the entity that left Reira, but there is no telling if it will be Ray, Yuzu, or a different girl entirely. But he might as well try.

Some are upset that he didn’t get explicitly punished for the pain he caused, and that’s a valid feeling, but I prefer how he just kinda leaves the series in such an understated way. While he is shown in the last episode to be hoping perhaps he’ll this world will become like the one he lost, it is clear to the rest of the cast he just doesn’t matter anymore. All his glamour and power has been stripped away to highlight what he has always been: a sad grieving man. And while there is still unfinished business to settle, putting Zarc to rest becomes obviously more important, bc for a few moments, we were Leo Akaba ourselves. And if want to stop this cycle of pain, we finally have to take a step forward with courage.


End file.
